Transform Your Digital Communication: Make the Leap from SMS to RCS

RCS (Rich Communication Services) surveys are the evolution of SMS surveys. While an SMS includes only text and a link, an RCS survey is presented with an enriched visual interface, the verified logo and name of the sender, and interactive response buttons. This generates greater trust in the user, increases the open rate and significantly improves the percentage of completed responses.

The rise of SMS fraud —especially phishing and identity spoofing— has led many users to distrust text messages that include links. As it is not possible to verify who is sending the message, recipients frequently ignore or delete legitimate surveys as a precaution. This directly reduces the effectiveness of communications and survey results.

Both channels are useful and complementary:
SMS surveys: recommended when total coverage is needed, including older devices or users without RCS activated. They are the perfect fallback channel.
RCS surveys: recommended when user trust, a higher response rate and a more visual and interactive experience are prioritised. Ideal for satisfaction surveys, post-service feedback or extensive questionnaires. The usual approach is to combine both: send via RCS when the device supports it and automatically via SMS when it does not.

RCS surveys achieve higher open and response rates than SMS thanks to their enriched design, sender verification and the ability to respond without leaving the messaging application. SMS fraud has eroded trust in conventional text messages, causing many users to ignore links included in SMS, even when they are legitimate.

They are especially effective in sectors where customer contact is frequent and post-interaction feedback is key:
Healthcare: satisfaction after a consultation or appointment confirmation.
Retail and e-commerce: rating of the purchase or service received.
Banking and insurance: feedback after a transaction or incident.
Transport: travel experience or service punctuality.
Public administration: satisfaction with citizen services. In all these cases, reaching the user's mobile at the right moment makes a difference to the participation rate.

Yes. The most effective strategy is to combine several channels according to the user's profile and the moment of the customer journey. RateNow allows satisfaction surveys to be managed via RCS, SMS, WhatsApp, email, QR and web from a single platform, also complementing them with physical in-situ smiley feedback devices for face-to-face touchpoints.

RateNow is a customer experience expert platform that makes it easy to design, send and analyse SMS and RCS surveys. RCS activation is fast, migration from SMS does not require changing provider and all management —sends, results and alerts— is centralised in one place. Additionally, RateNow supports each organisation with advice to maximise the response rate and turn every opinion into a real improvement.